l. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices for testing electronic circuits.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A packaged integrated circuit (IC) in which a set of electrical leads (or pins) extends from an IC chip housed within a package is conventionally tested with a parametric tester that performs functional tests on the IC. Because the parametric tester has many precision components, it is expensive. Skilled personnel are needed to run the tester and interpret the results which often turn out to be largely a go/no go decision. If there are failures in continuity or current leakage, the specific leads at which these failures occur may not be identified.
V. Vis discloses a leakage/continuity tester for medical equipment in U.S. Pat. No. 3,963, 981. This testing device has a set of lights that indicate whether specific limits in continuity and leakage have been exceeded. Consequently, it is not necessary to train the operator about the particular limits. Leakage and continuity testing are done along separate channels. While the two-channel approach may be suitable for testing medical instruments, it could be unnecessarily expensive for an IC in which many leads must be tested for both continuity and leakage. It would be desirable to have an easy-to-operate IC continuity/leakage tester patterned somewhat along the lines of Vis but utilizing a minimum number of components so as to keep cost low.